Comments on: When Does Authority Trump Equality?

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Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:56:31 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tyler Braun, Bo Lane and Bo Lane, chadharvey. chadharvey said: RT @BoLane: When Does Authority Trump Equality? // Thoughts about clergy and the congregation from @tylerbraun // http://tr.im/equality [...]

By: Betty Carle

Betty Carle — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:16:34 +0000

Bo I really like your comments and agree with you. Scriptures talk about how each part of the body needs each other and can't be complete with all the parts.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:26:11 +0000

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by vinthomas: When Does Authority Trump Equality? // Thoughts about clergy and the congregation from @tylerbraun // http://tr.im/equality (via @BoLane)…

By: Bo Lane

Bo Lane — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:46:30 +0000

A few years back, I served as an Associate Pastor at a church in California. This church was part of a particular denomination (not a huge fan of denominations, but I'll spare my thoughts at the moment) and there were two things in particular with their doctrine that I couldn't fully agree with. One was their lack of emphasis on what is commonly called the "Five-fold Ministry" derived from Ephesians 4:11: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (or the four ministries if you combine pastorate and teaching). And the other was concerning their take on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I didn't have a problem that this denomination believed what they did, but, I wasn't going to teach on these particular topics out of respect for the denomination and my role as one of the pastors.

That being said, a year into our ministry there, the senior pastor took a position elsewhere and the church went looking for a new senior pastor. Several months later the new pastor was instated and it soon became evident that our two ministries styles greatly differed. I sat in his office, on several occasions, having to defend my thoughts on the two previously mentioned topics – both topics he seemed to be passionate about in the opposite extreme. It finally came to the point where I just asked the question: Why don't we see this type of ministry (five fold ministry) being displayed within the body of our church? His answer struck me: Why do we need to? Why can't the senior pastor encapsulate all of those characteristics?

It's clear what his philosophy of ministry was. To me, this is very unfortunate. The pastor has a distinct role within the church – that is evident through scripture. However, his role isn't solely important or more important than that of the other gifts/ministries within the local body of believers. Authority, responsibly, leading, structure – all of these are important. But when one ministry within the body is elevated amongst all others, we see disconnect and discouragement and ultimately we lack in spiritual growth. I think if we focused more on equipping the body to display and develop ministry, the gap will decrease as the amount of ministry is increased.

By: Josh McKenney

Josh McKenney — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:57:40 +0000

Authoritarian can definitely be bad. Authority however, done biblically, is awesome. Jesus has authority over elders, elders have authority over members, men have authority with wives (I'm talking Christ sacrificing himself for the church kind of authority)… That's our model. Equality? Absolutely. Deference and leadership/authority? Without a doubt.